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BOTANICAL LINKS IN THE
ATLANTIC ARC
Proceedings of an Anglo-Hiberno-French meeting
arranged by
the Botanical Society of the British Isles
8th-12th May 2003
Camborne, Cornwall
EDITED BY
S. J. Leach, C. N. Page,
Y. Peytoureau & M. N. Sanford
Botanical Society of the British Isles
with financial support from English Nature
2006
HISTORY
2 2 SEP 2806
PURC
ENGLISH
Conference Report
NATURE
No. 24
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Contents
Preface . 1
Dedication. 5
Resumes franyais . 7
The geological background to the landscape of the Atlantic Arc. C. M. Bristow 19
Phytogeography of Ireland, past and present. S. Waldren, P. Coxon & N. KINGSTON 31
The Mediterranean-Atlantic and Atlantic elements in the Cornish flora.
C. D. Preston & H. R. Arnold . 41
Fern range determination within the Atlantic Arc by an environment of complex and
interacting factors. C. N. Page. 59
An introduction to the flora of the Isles of Scilly. R. Parslow . 65
Maritime communities as habitats for Ophioglossum ferns in the Isles of Scilly. R. Parslow 73
Atlantic Arc grasslands: the example of the rhos pastures of south-west Wales and their
conservation. R. D. Pryce . 83
Celtic Hedges as refuges for fern diversity in predominantly agriculturalised landscapes.
C. N. Page .■ .. 93
The task of the Conservatoire Botanique National of Brest in the knowledge and conservation
of the Armorican flora as illustrated by Trichomanes speciosum Willd.
S. Loriot & S. Magnanon .103
The Isle of Oleron orchids. M. Breret. 113
An introduction to the flora of the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall. J. Hopkins . 119
The Lizard trackways project. A. J. Byfield & B. R. Wheeler. 127
Semi-natural vegetation on National Trust Land in Cornwall, with an emphasis on that of the
Lizard peninsula. J. Bruce, L. Cordrey, J. Harvey & A. Cameron .133
Genetic variation in Irish threatened plant species: a European perspective.
R. J. Smith & S. Waldren . .137
Biogeography of the Irish ‘Lusitanian’ heathers. N. Kingston & S. Waldren.147
Ecological profiling as a means of improving mud plant conservation. R. V. Lansdown ... 157
Cornish bryophytes in the Atlantic Arc: cell biology, culturing, conservation and climate
change. J. G. Duckett, S. Pressel, J. Burch & R. Ligrone. 165
Erica erigena R. Ross (Irish Heath) in the Medoc region of S.W. France. C. Lahondere ... 177
Euphrasia vigursii Davey (Vigurs’ Eyebright) in Devon. R. HODGSON & N. BALDOCK ... 181
The integration of wildlife information in Cornwall. S. Myles .185
Cystopteris diaphana (Bory) Blasdell (C. viridula (Desv.) Desv.) new to Britain.
R. J. Murphy & F. J. Rumsey.191
Database developments and biological recording in Cornwall. C. N. French .195
Assessment of threats to populations of Rumex rupestris Le Gall (Shore Dock) in Britain and
France. F. Bioret & R. Daniels .201
Rumex rupestris Le Gall (Shore Dock) in S.W. England: review of recent surveys and
assessment of current status. E. J. McDonnell & M. P. King.211
A review of recent work on the Limonium binervosum aggregate (rock sea-lavenders) in the
British Isles. S. J. Leach & D. A. Pearman .217
Recent surveys of endemic Limonium (Rock Sea-lavender) taxa in S. Devon (v.c. 3).
S. J. Leach. 225
Vegetation and habitats of the western European endemic Asparagus prostratus Dumort.
(Liliaceae), Wild Asparagus. T. C. G. Rich, L. K. Rich, S. B. Evans & A. E. Evans ... 231
A strategy for the conservation of Genista pilosa L. (Hairy Greenweed) in Picardie, France.
P. Saliou & J-C. Hauguel . 243
Romulea columnae Sebast. & Mauri (Sand Crocus) refound in Cornwall after 121 years and
Jnncus capitatus Weigel (Dwarf Rush) new to E. Cornwall (v.c. 2).
I. J. Bennallick.247
Hypericum linariifolium x humifusum: a hybrid adapted to the Atlantic coast.
R. A. Jones & M. D. Sutton.251
Lotus angustissimus L. (Slender Bird’s-foot-trefoil) in S.W. England. S. J. Leach .255
Puccinellia foucaudi (Coste) Hackel on the French mid-Atlantic coast: taxonomic status,
morphology and distribution. C. Lahondere . .257
Status of Teucrium scordium L. (Water Germander) in north-west France.
B. Toussaint, B. Destine & F. Hendoux.261
Restoration and conservation management for the habitat of Mibora minima (L.) Desv. (Early
Sand-grass) in northern France. F. Basso & F. Hendoux .269
Viola kitaibeliana Schult. (Dwarf Pansy) in the Isles of Scilly. R. E. Randall.277
Polygonum maritimum L. (Sea Knotgrass) in Cornwall. R. J. MURPHY .281
Mentha pulegium L. (Pennyroyal) in Britain and Ireland. R. D. PORLEY.285
Hypericum undulatum Schousboe ex Willd. (Wavy St John’s-wort) in S.W. England and
Wales. R. D. Porley .289
Conservation of Spiranthes romanzoffiana Cham. (Irish Lady’s-tresses) in Scotland - the role
of twin lateral bud production. R. Gulliver, M. Gulliver, E. Grant, J. Robarts,
M. Keirnen, S. Jonch Moller, A. Beare & C. Sydes .291
The turlough form of Ranunculus repens L. (Creeping Buttercup).
S. Waldren, D. Lynn & S. Murphy .301
Creeping Water-plantain (Dyfr lyriad ymlusgawl), Baldellia ranunculoides subsp. repens
(Lam.) A. Love & D. Love in Wales. R. A. Jones .311
Isoetes histrix L. (Land Quillwort) on the Lizard peninsula. R. J. Murphy & C. N. Page ... 321
Pilularia globulifera L. (Pillwort) in Cornwall. I. J. BENNALLICK.325
Ranunculus ophioglossifolius Vill. (Adder’s-tongue Spearwort) in the Nord/Pas-de-Calais
region of northern France. C. Blondel .327
Echium plantagineum L. (Purple Viper’s-bugloss) at Boscregan, St Just - its conservation
and management. L. Butterfield .. 331
List of participants .,. 334
Colour Plates . 337
1
PREFACE
This volume comprises a series of papers and posters presented at the symposium ‘Botanical Links
in the Atlantic Arc’, organised by the Botanical Society of the British Isles (B.S.B.I.) and held in
May 2003, in Camborne, Cornwall. This meeting - the brainchild of the late Dr Franklyn Perring -
gave botanists an opportunity to come together to celebrate the wild plants of the Atlantic coastal
regions of Europe, and to consider a whole range of topics concerning their distribution,
autecology, conservation and management. The meeting was a resounding success, attracting more
than one hundred delegates from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England and France - and even one
from Sweden! Participants learnt a great deal from one another, and everyone involved contributed
to the friendly and informal atmosphere that allowed new links to be made between botanists
working, often in considerable isolation, along the Atlantic seaboard of Western Europe. Even for
those of us who already knew each other, it was a pleasure to replace the bland anonymity of
e-mails and the Internet with a few days of face-to-face contact.
The Atlantic Arc, as adopted here, forms a cohesive biogeographic region from Britain and
Ireland in the north and west, through Nord/Pas-de-Calais, Normandy, Brittany and around the
Bay of Biscay as far south as the northern and western Iberian peninsula. This might appear to be
unduly restrictive, and others might well feel that the southern limit could legitimately extend
southwards as far as the extreme north-west tip of Africa, as well as embracing the Canary Islands,
Madeira and the Azores. Equally, the European Union’s ‘Atlantic Biogeographical Region'
extends northwards as far as Scotland and western Denmark, and takes in much of northern and
western France as well as the coastal regions of Spain and the extreme north of Portugal. The
meeting was, however, principally concerned with studies of a range of plant species and species-
assemblages occurring on or close to the Atlantic-facing coasts of Ireland, Britain and France (and,
to a lesser extent, northern Spain). This is an extensive and diverse area, it is true, but one united
by the weather, where climatic extremes - especially winter cold - are ameliorated by the close
proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. Under such mild conditions, growing seasons tend to be long,
supported by typically light and frequent rainfall, and often a high humidity and extensive cloud-
cover.
The geography of the Atlantic Arc is dominated by the sea, into which its land areas intrude
mostly as disparate and geologically varied assemblages of islands, archipelagos, coastal strips and
peninsulas. The fact that these land areas fall within many separate countries - with their peoples
speaking several different languages - may help to explain why there have been so few attempts to
bring people together to consider them as a single cohesive phytogeographic unit. Yet, as we
discovered, the botanical similarities between these areas far outweigh their differences. Indeed,
they have a great many species and plant communities in common, and there are two that can
serve as examples to illustrate this botanical cohesiveness: Rumex rupestris (Shore dock), which
has a world distribution that corresponds closely with the area embraced by the Atlantic Arc, from
Galicia in northern Spain up the west coast of France, and then in the Channel Islands, S.W.
England and Wales; and Erica erigena (Irish heath), which has a markedly disjunct distribution
extending from central and southern Portugal and Galicia in the south to western Ireland in the
north.
Throughout the symposium, we were able to share valuable insights into the biology and
conservation of a host of such species, including quite a few rarities. Many papers and poster
displays presented the results of studies undertaken to answer quite specific questions relating to
the conservation of rare taxa - and these included a number of species that are legally protected or
for which there are regional or national conservation plans (e.g. in Britain, species listed on
Schedule 8 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act and/or included in the U.K. Biodiversity Action
Plan). Indeed, contributors often laid considerable emphasis on the opportunities and challenges
associated with the conservation of these rare species and the habitats in which they are found. For
a large number of species the Atlantic Arc is clearly an important refuge - not just an ‘arc’, but
also an Atlantic Ark.
2 ATLANTIC ARC
As editors, we wish to thank all those who helped in the organisation of the symposium and the
field meetings that followed it, including Ian Bennallick, Jane Croft, Rosaline Murphy, Alistair
Cameron, Rachel Holder, Ray Lawman and various members of the B.S.B.I. in Cornwall. We also
thank the authors of papers and poster presentations for their contributions, and for their patience
during the editorial process. In particular, we wish to congratulate our young French guests from
Conservatoire Botanique National de Bailleul and Conservatoire Botanique National de Brest who
were bold enough to present their papers in English to a predominantly English-speaking audience,
thus illustrating the obvious need for mutual understanding between European peoples. They
contributed with friendly daring to the dialogue between British and Irish botanists and those from
‘the Continent’ - an excellent example of Entente Cordialel
We are grateful to colleagues who helped to referee papers; particular thanks to Chris Preston
for providing comments at very short notice on the ‘final drafts’ of so many papers. We are
especially grateful to Yves Peytoureau (Secretary, Societe Botanique du Centre-Ouest) for
translating the English abstracts and this preface into French, and for undertaking this task with
such efficiency and good humour. Our thanks, too, to Jill Sutcliffe (English Nature), for her help
with editorial matters, especially in the early stages. English Nature assisted financially when the
symposium was being planned, and provided a substantial grant towards the cost of publishing
these proceedings.
The editorial process has been long and complicated, and we apologise to all concerned for the
length of time it has taken us to bring the present volume to fruition. As for our individual roles,
Chris Page edited the scene-setting and ‘habitat’ papers, while Simon Leach was responsible for
those focussing on individual species. Yves Peytoureau coordinated submission of the French
manuscripts, helped several authors with English translations, and checked edited versions of these
papers and all the French abstracts. Martin Sanford picked up the baton in late 2004, taking on the
task of seeing the edited papers through to final publication: without his considerable input over
the last few months, this volume would not now be seeing the light of day.
Our final acknowledgement must surely be to Franklyn Perring. Without his vision and dogged
persistence, the ‘Atlantic Arc’ symposium would never have happened. In May 2003, he was
already in poor health, but his enthusiasm still shone through. He saw this meeting as one step of a
journey that would bring those of us from Britain and Ireland into an ever closer working
relationship with botanists in France and elsewhere in mainland Europe. In this connection, he
would have been delighted to know that colleagues from Bailleul, Brest and the Societe Botanique
du Centre-Ouest are now only too eager to reciprocate the Cornish symposium.
Franklyn was particularly keen that the proceedings of the meeting should be published, and we
are pleased that this has now been done - in hardback and with a great many illustrations, just as
he had wished. We hope that Botanical Links in the Atlantic Arc will serve as a fitting and lasting
tribute to a man who worked so tirelessly - and over so many decades - to bring plants and people
together. It is, therefore, to Franklyn Perring that this volume is most respectfully dedicated.
SIMON LEACH, CHRIS PAGE, YVES PEYTOUREAU & MARTIN SANFORD
May 2005
